Website Accessibility Updated From WCAG 2.0 to 2.1 (are you ready?)

By Eric Cook

As you may know, web accessibility continues to be a “hot topic” these days (especially for banks). There are a number of ways to address the issue to ensure an accessible experience for your site visitors, and many of our clients have opted to engage AudioEye to help ensure website accessibility. In case you missed the announcement, W3C’s WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) recently updated from version 2.0 to 2.1. Given that version 2.0 was established in 2008, the updates not much of a surprise since the Internet has changed just a bit over the past 10 years.

For those clients who are using AudioEye, WCAG 2.1 AA tests are being added to their Ally Managed Service as part of the ongoing accessibility compliance process. As we strive to maintain substantial conformance with the latest standards and guidelines, AudioEye will, over the coming weeks and months, be conducting 2.1 testing. As updates and fixes may be required, remediations will be applied dynamically through the AudioEye overlay solution. For any outstanding conformance requirement not remediated dynamically, AudioEye will notify WSI of the suggested updates and how they further improve accessibility and usability for your users. If you’d like to read more about the coming 2.1 changes, the folks at AudioEye recently published a blog post on this update you can read here

If you’d like to see what’s new in WCAG 2.1 directly from the W3C, you can read the W3C’s what’s new information as well. For a complete list of all the current WCAG requirements (and what AudioEye is evaluating for you as part of their ongoing service), you’ll want to visit this page for the complete listing.

If you’re an AudioEye user, congrats. Given these recent changes, your decision is certainly validated as one of the best ways to ensure your website meets current (and new) accessibility requirements. If you’re not using AudioEye and need some help developing a plan, let us know. We’ve created an ADA resource section for your convenience with some helpful information that can get you started. Or, if you know of other website owners that may need help with their accessibility challenges, be sure to pass this along and have them get in touch!

"Accessibily” Yours…
Eric

P.P.S. Wonder what IF you were not using AudioEye for your website accessibility? Well, you’d have to pay someone to re-test your entire site under the new 2.1 standards and generate a list of new violations. This list would then need to be reviewed, cost and time to update approved, scheduled, implemented and then validated once done. Whew! Or… AudioEye just takes care of it all for you. :-)